The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical cable connectors configured to communicate data signals and communication systems that include the same.
Communication systems, such as routers, servers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), supercomputers, and other computing systems, may be complex systems that have a number of components interconnected to one another. For example, a backplane communication system may include several daughter card assemblies that are interconnected to a common backplane. The daughter card assemblies include a circuit board that may have at least one processor mounted thereto and a plurality of electrical connectors mounted thereto. Some of the electrical connectors may mate with corresponding connectors of the backplane, and some of the electrical connectors may mate with other connectors, such as pluggable input/output (I/O) modules, that communicate with remote components. The processor may communicate data signals with the different electrical connectors through traces and vias of the circuit board. Alternatively, a flexible circuit may interconnect the processor to the electrical connectors or other components of the daughter card assembly.
As performance demands and signal speeds increase, however, it has become more challenging to achieve a baseline level of signal quality. For example, it is known that dielectric material of a circuit board or of a flexible circuit may cause signal degradation as the data signals propagate along conductive pathways through the dielectric material. The signal degradation is even greater with higher transmission speeds. Thus, it may be desirable to reduce the distances that the data signals travel through such dielectric material.
In order to reduce the distances that the data signals travel through dielectric material, it has been proposed to use a cable assembly having a cable connector and a bundle of cables coupled to the cable connector. High performance cables may cause less signal degradation than pathways through printed circuit board (PCB) material or flex cable dielectric material. In one known cable assembly, the cables are optical fibers, and the cable connector includes or engages an optical engine that converts the data signals from an electrical form to an optical form (or vice versa). The optical engine is mated to a seating space of a land grid array (LGA) socket that is mounted to the circuit board near the processor. The LGA has a two-dimensional (2D) array of electrical contacts that extend parallel to the circuit board along the seating space. The electrical contacts engage corresponding electrical contacts of the optical engine. The optical fibers extend from the optical engine over the circuit board to other components. In such applications, the data signals may propagate relatively long distances through the optical fibers instead of the dielectric material of the circuit board or flexible circuit.
Converting data signals between an electrical form and an optical form, however, can consume a substantial amount of power and generate a substantial amount of heat within the communication system. For applications in which the LGA socket and the other components are relatively close to each other, such as less than twenty (20) meters, it may be less expensive to directly connect the LGA socket or the processor to the other component through an electrical cable assembly. Conventional electrical cable assemblies, however, are not configured for mating directly to LGA sockets (or processors) in which the corresponding 2D arrays extend parallel to the circuit board.
Accordingly, a need exists for an electrical cable assembly having a 2D array of electrical contacts that is configured to engage another 2D array of electrical contacts that extend along or parallel to a circuit board.